Funds likely to save court jobs, end closures

COURTS

An unexpected infusion of cash from the state should allow California's courts to end their one-day-a-month closures in July and will avert planned layoffs of more than one-fifth of San Francisco Superior Court employees, judicial officials said Monday.

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was announcing proposals Friday to eliminate state welfare and health insurance programs and slash other social services, his proposed 2010-11 budget contained good news for the courts: withdrawal of a previous plan to cut their funding by $100 million.

That will almost certainly be enough to end the statewide court closures on the third Wednesday of each month that started in September, said Chief Justice Ronald George. He said the last shutdowns would take place Wednesday and June 16, two weeks before the end of the fiscal year.

The state Judicial Council ordered the closures in July to close most of a $100 million budget gap in fiscal 2009-10. George said the action caused substantial hardships - to members of the public who need court documents, to jurors whose service was extended, and to inmates awaiting bail hearings - and was just as damaging symbolically.

"A terrible message is conveyed when you to go a structure that's designed to provide justice and it says, 'Closed for business,' " he said.

George said each county's courts can still order closures and layoffs on their own, but he hopes the added funding will prevent those cutbacks as well.

In San Francisco, the Superior Court's chief executive had planned to give layoff notices Monday, effective July 23, to 122 employees, nearly a fourth of the staff, said court spokeswoman Ann Donlan. The court has frozen hiring for more than a year and already has about 60 vacancies on its authorized staff of 591, she said.

"We would have had to reorganize the court, with a substantial impact to the public," Donlan said.

She said the jobs were saved by the increase in state funding and an agreement between state court officials and legislative leaders to increase court filing fees, criminal fines and other funding sources dedicated to the judiciary.